The Characteristics of the Contemporary Global Terrorism

Modern terrorism is global when it comes to its spread (international terrorist networks), and as such, it makes all boarders pointless, and differs from its previous condition by its proportions of destruction, professional planning, coordination and execution, as well as a decentralized manner of organization from its previous state. Modern terrorist organizations have branches and flipping cells in almost all countries, they expand fast, and while doing that, they use the cutting edge technology, especially when it comes to communication systems, which they use to efficiently and in secret (encoded) communicate around the world. Internet is the thing that, beside spreading hate, endorses and enables potential recruitment, while financial globalization and the so called “digitalization of money” have enabled quick and easy financial transfers worldwide, while at the same time making it more difficult to track the money and terrorist organization finances, as well as their actions. The goals of modernized terrorism reach to the destabilization of a social system of an invaded country and its international relations as a whole, and those actions can be of any kind and can be conducted using all and every means necessary. Its bearers have enormous, mostly unreal ambitions, use modern strategies, doctrines and tactics, and demonstrate power using brutal violence, whose destruction has been vastly overcame by its psychological effects (fear and a sense of insecurity) by which they fulfill their political goals. Unlike classic terrorist acts, the activities of global terrorists, besides their international character, are much faster and much more professional. In addition to that, they are planned and performed in a highest level of secrecy, with the maximum efficiency and a factor of surprise. Their direct victims are usually picked randomly, which means that they are no longer mostly focused on state officials, but rather on common people, who represent the means by which terrorists bring their messages across, or are picked selectively from targeted population and used as statements (symbolic goals). Also, the targets of terrorist brutality are not only people, but more and more the objects of symbolic value, which can be seen in terrorist attacks of 9/11, when three symbolic objects in US were picked as a target: Pentagon and World Trade Center, which symbolize military and economic power of the US, as well as the Congress (fortunately an unsuccessful attempt), which represents political power of this country and the pillar of its democracy.

The actions of modern terrorists are sensational because they are, in most cases, unexpected, and as such they attract enormous attention from the media which they use to force their own goal or intention, but also fear and insecurity among citizenry. By performing such actions, which are classified as “states of emergency”, they purposely obstruct normal functioning of state and society, and in such a way apply pressure to the authorities demanding them to fulfil certain condition, or simply bring their message across to the vast media. They are counting the public pressure on the government to produce the desired result of the government yielding in these situations, and that is the main reason they take public responsibility for their actions. They use media as a gauge of the efficiency of performed attacks while the publicity gained, and then the reactions of the government and citizens determine the success of these actions. Let us take, as an example, the attacks of 9/11 that caused the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. They were more successful than Bin Laden himself thought they would be, and unlike them, the bombings in London in 2007, after which the Brits continued with their normal life on the very next day, were not half as successful. The question is – why? Because, the British government has limited the media space for terrorists, since its adamant reckoning with Ireland’s republican army depriving them publicity. Spain has, facing her anti-terrorist activities when it comes to ethnic-separatist organization called “Basque Homeland and Liberty (ETA)”, for a while now, been following that experience example from Britain.

We can come to the conclusion that the practice of the most of the world media so far, lead by American media, and abrupt reactions of numerous countries are only encouraging terrorists to perform bigger and deadlier actions that are appalling to the world with their cruelty and brutality creating international fear. The publicity that follows every terrorist act is enabling public display of their goals and motives, and in that case the media represents the means for communication with the state (the authorities) and with the public, whereby the fear of brutality is meant for the public, and the request/condition for achieving political goals is meant for the governments. That is the main characteristic of modern global terrorism – today’s terrorist actions don’t have a purpose of their own, but are more the means of transmitting the message of what may follow (a threat of future violence resulting in more horrific violence) if the requested terms/conditions aren’t fulfilled, and are often followed by new actions with even greater consequences. That is why it is necessary to limit the media access to terrorist groups and organizations, and narrow down media attention, restricting them the mass publicity in that manner.